For the sake of their constituents, their families and themselves, it's time for two dishonest East Bay politicians with serious personal problems to resign from office and focus on their issues.

We're talking about Assemblywoman Mary Hayashi, D-Castro Valley, who last month pleaded no contest to shoplifting, and Alameda County Supervisor Nadia Lockyer, of Hayward, who this month checked back into substance-abuse rehab after carrying on an extramarital affair with a methamphetamine user.

In addition, Lockyer's husband, state Treasurer Bill Lockyer, must immediately separate his personal from his political life.

His 2010 bankrolling of his wife's campaign with $1.5 million from his own political coffers was outrageous.

He effectively bought her the office using funds he could extract by virtue of his powerful position.

The money purchased a campaign of subterfuge that diverted attention from the candidate's addiction. Within a month after her election, she was in rehab, where she met the man with whom she had a relationship.

Her problems came to public light because sadly she ended up beaten after a Feb. 3 Newark motel meeting with the man, an encounter to which she had inexcusably taken her 8-year-old son. While she now acknowledges an addiction problem, she has yet to provide any details or explain how long she's been battling it, much less explain the rest of her behavior. And there's no indication when she will be able to return to work.

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Meanwhile, Bill Lockyer's continuing defense of his wife's fitness for office calls into serious question his own judgment.

Protecting his spouse through her personal struggles is one thing. Politically defending her demonstrates a lack of boundaries.

As for Hayashi, her refusal to answer questions about shoplifting $2,445 worth of clothing from San Francisco's Neiman Marcus store has gone on too long. Her canned explanations don't make sense.

She first hired damage-control spokesman Sam Singer to put out misleading information that it was all a misunderstanding.

This wasn't a misunderstanding. Store personnel already had her in their sights because of suspected past shoplifting.

This time she got caught.

She had put expensive clothes in a bag and walked out.

Only after pleading no contest -- refusing to own up to her behavior with a guilty plea -- did she try to explain herself.

In her statement, she claimed to "take full responsibility for my actions," yet continued to label it an "unintentional" and "absent-minded error." She muddied the waters by saying "my medical condition may have complicated the situation," a reference to a benign brain tumor her attorney had said might have impaired her judgment.

If Hayashi had a brain tumor, she should have disclosed the full details to her constituents and explained why it was relevant to her criminal case.

Similarly, she needed to explain why she had Singer put out misleading information and why she was already being watched by the store for her past actions.

Hayashi and Nadia Lockyer have serious issues that have permanently damaged their abilities to serve.